Thursday, June 04, 2009

To help comfort women survivors

My friend who lives in Seoul sent this about a concert this weekend:

don't know if many of you know but i occasionally volunteer with a group called "the house of sharing" that provides support for comfort women survivors. this saturday night, the volunteer group is putting on a benefit show in hongdae featuring korean and non-korean indie bands to benefit comfort women survivors in the philippines.

normally, house of sharing only works with korean survivors but we recently found out that filipina survivors (who are called lolas) have it really bad in the philippines. unlike korean survivors, lolas don't receive any help from the government so they don't have the money for basic needs like food and medicine. the entrance fee is 10,000 and all the money raised from the show will go straight to the lolas.

My sister did a lot of research on comfort women for her master's thesis. When I visited her at school, I read some of the materials she was looking at. I was BEYOND horrified. And that was just me, being a woman in the 21st century, reading words on a piece of paper about the brutalization of women by the Japanese military in WWII. Just reading sears you. There are not many survivors left, but it's vital that their stories are shared and the reality of this history acknowledged in a way that makes sure that responsibility is taken for the past, present, and future - so that this never happens again.